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Matt. 28:19, 20
If you don’t have a church home, we invite you to worship with us on Sunday morning at 9:30. In our current study we are taking a close look at the Great Commission Jesus gave as a mandate for the Church. We’ve learned that Jesus extended a personal invitation to each disciple He called. We’ve also learned that discipleship is a continuous process of learning and focusing only on God’s Law as a way of life. In this lesson we are going to focus on the word “baptizing” as it appears in the Great Commission. Let’s start by…
- ANALYZING BAPTISM! Beginning in Acts 2 and throughout most of the Book, we see that people were baptized into the membership of the NT local church; sometimes even by the thousands (Acts 2). It is a sad testimony to our local churches today that it doesn’t happen that way. Baptism means (especially for a Baptist) “to immerse, or dip under.” The early historian, Josephus, used it meaning “to dye as in dye material.” It is used in Rev. 19:13. The point or idea here is that a disciple is to be immersed, or saturated with the teachings of The Law of God or “those things I have taught you.” Water baptism is not a NT “invention.” It is used throughout ancient literature as a part of cultic rituals. Interestingly enough it is almost always used to symbolize devotion or commitment to a cult, societal ritual or practice. In OT Judaism baptism is used for dipping a morsel of bread into wine as in Judges 2:14; or dipping feet in the Jordan as Joshua 3:15 or dipping a finger into blood as in Lev. 4:16, 17. It is vitally important to the NT meaning of baptism to see that everywhere in and out of the OT the act of baptism is used to symbolize complete association with and devotion to the community being joined. If we allow Scripture to influence our thinking about baptism, we will come to the conclusion that when a person came to point of baptism, they had already given their heart and life to the cause into which they were being baptized. So how does that apply to the Great Commission? To understand, we must consider our…
- ADVERSITY TO BAPTISM! It is interesting to note how many mainline fundamental churches omit baptism of their members as Jesus intended! We preach baptism by immersion theologically, but all we do is sprinkle in practice! Think that’s an exaggeration? Consider this: in the past week did you open your Bible at least six times in a quiet moment when God could speak to you? Did you spend just 30 minutes each day (1 sitcom) memorizing Scripture? Did you speak to someone you know who is lost and invite them to be saved? Did you spend time on your knees before God in prayer each day this past week? Get the picture? We aren’t immersed in our beliefs enough to make them a way of daily life. We can create an entirely different picture by…
- ADAPTING TO BAPTISM! I strongly believe that as fundamental Christians we can become totally immersed in, surrounded by, and consumed with/in Christ, His life, and God’s Law and still have more fun than most people can imagine. In fact, Scripture teaches that if we allow God the freedom to do all He wants to do in and through us, He is able to do more than all we could imagine! What could God do with/through you if you stopped being afraid of being baptized in His Word. It’s like getting into a bath or shower! It’s really hot at first, but if you go slow and steady, you get used to it and it becomes very comfortable.
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